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 Post subject: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 4:43 pm 
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Stupid? Yes.<p>By PATRICK HOWE
Associated Press<p> ST. PAUL … The governor's
plan to make Minnesota's welfare
program the first in the country to
ban recipients from so-called junk
food such as potato chips and
candy bars is leaving some with a
sour taste.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 5:20 pm 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Bumfketeer:
Stupid? Yes.<hr></blockquote><p>Dude, have you ever worked in a convenience store or even a supermarket?<p>I did, and virtually everyone who spent food stamps there was buying Frito's, potato chips, candy and pop. If someone actually used food stamps to buy milk, bread or even breakfast cereal, I don't remember it.<p>I'm not a cold, incompassionate Libertarian. I don't mind paying taxes so that families don't have to starve. But I'm not working my ass off to keep deadbeats stocked in Doritos and Coke.<p>Sorry, Bumf, I think Minnesota has a great idea, and I hope it spreads.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 5:23 pm 
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Uh, I think Bumfketeer was commenting on the stupidity of the lede, not the merits of the legislation.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 5:30 pm 
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I agree that the lead was stupid.<p>Gary: the vast majority of people who get food stamps are not "deadbeats." Mostly they are heads of single-parent households whose jobs pay so little they qualify for assistance. A significant number of people who are eligible for food stamps don't obtain them.<p>Personal aside: I'm not willing to say that people shouldn't be allowed to eat snack foods if they are poor.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 5:34 pm 
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Yup. Gary, I meant the lede.<p>And I agree with Blanp.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 5:57 pm 
In other bad-lead breaking news ....<p>LOS ANGELES (AP) — Extra features on the DVD release of “8 Mile” won’t be slim, but they will be shady.
The Eminem hip-hop drama, set to debut on home video March 18, will include five new “rap battles” between the star and other performers as they trash-talk each other with rhyming profanity and insults.
Viewers can choose to watch the sequences in censored or uncensored formats, Universal Studios Home Video said Thursday.
An exclusive video of Eminem’s “Superman” song will also be included on the DVD. The track from his Grammy-nominated album, “The Eminem Show,” is about wooing women for sex with empty promises and then cruelly dismissing them.
Eminem, whose stage name is derived from the initials of his real name, Marshall Mathers, frequently raps in the guise of his fictional alter-ego, Slim Shady who delights in brutality and wickedness.<p>*** There's stretching ... and then there's snapping.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 6:41 pm 
And then there's previously covered bad leads ....<p>NEW YORK (AP) — An intensified probe into Martha Stewart's alleged insider-trading has renewed speculation that the domestic diva could eventually face criminal charges.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 7:04 pm 
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Opponents of President Hugo Chavez began focusing on a petition driver to cut his term in power Saturday, after agreeing to ease a two-month strike that has crippled Venezuela's economy.<p>*** How much does this driver job pay? Would I get dental with that?


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 10:33 pm 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Craig Lancaster:
Uh, I think Bumfketeer was commenting on the stupidity of the lede, not the merits of the legislation.<hr></blockquote><p>That thought occurred to me, although not for about an hour after I had posted my knee-jerk response. Sorry! :D <p>Count me in as one of those who agree it was a stupid lede.<p>And by the way, I'm not against poor people eating junk food either. Just as long as they don't do it with my tax dollars.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sat Feb 01, 2003 11:40 pm 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gary Kirchherr:
<p>And by the way, I'm not against poor people eating junk food either. Just as long as they don't do it with my tax dollars.<hr></blockquote><p>
Which reminds me ....<p>The recall targets had portrayed themselves as modernizers of the city's aging infrastructure whose reforms met with fierce resistance from the city's old guard. They called Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley's corruption probes "witch hunts" and said they were justified in spending millions of taxpayer dollars for criminal defense lawyers. (Los Angeles Times)<p>***No. "Dollars" stop belonging to "taxpayers" as soon as they are sent to the government. "Taxpayer dollars" is more code. "The government's money" usually is what is meant. In the example, just "spending millions of dollars" is sufficient. No one thinks Cooley is going to spend his own money for his "probes."***<p>[ February 01, 2003: Message edited by: blanp ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 1:54 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by blanp:
***No. "Dollars" stop belonging to "taxpayers" as soon as they are sent to the government. "Taxpayer dollars" is more code. "The government's money" usually is what is meant. In the example, just "spending millions of dollars" is sufficient. No one thinks Cooley is going to spend his own money for his "probes."***<hr></blockquote><p>1) If I follow the logic in the first half of this post, I don't have a leg to stand on when I complain about pork-barrel projects and other wasteful government spending because, after all, it's not "my money." I already gave it to the government when I paid taxes -- not that I had a choice. Now that the government has the cash, it has the right to spend "its money" as it pleases.<p>2) Regardless of how you feel about the phrase "taxpayer dollars," in news copy or anywhere else, "millions of dollars" isn't sufficient in this example. We're talking about money for the recall targets' defense lawyers; why shouldn't we assume or at least surmise the so-called targets might be spending their own money on their own lawyers?<p>[ February 02, 2003: Message edited by: Gary Kirchherr ]</p>


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 2:04 am 
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And for the record, I didn't imply at the beginning of this thread that everyone who gets food stamps is a "deadbeat." But those who use them to buy nothing but junk food sure are. Especially when they keep coming back to the register with new purchases until they have enough cold, hard cash in change to buy cigarettes.


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 Post subject: Re: Clever? No
PostPosted: Sun Feb 02, 2003 2:10 am 
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<blockquote><font size="1" face="TImes, TimesNR, serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Gary Kirchherr:
Especially when they keep coming back to the register with new purchases until they have enough cold, hard cash in change to buy cigarettes.<hr></blockquote><p>People smoke for a reason. Smoking relieves stress. Poor people are extremely stressed.


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